BakerCorp history

Baker’s billings reached $5.7 million in 1955, when the firm’s profits were $200,000.

The number of divisions had grown to ten in 1957, when there were a dozen branch offices and four foreign ones.

Baker surveyed and staked out a 236-mile natural-gas pipeline route from Ohio to Pennsylvania in 1967.

In that year the firm’s name was changed to Euthenics Systems Corp., but in 1975 it became the Michael Baker Corp.

When oil began flowing through the Alaska pipeline in 1977, however, there was little more for Baker to do, and the drawbacks of dependency on a single project immediately became obvious.

Early in 1985 the ESOP raised its stake in the company to 70 percent.

Baker’s profitability, aided by a $1 million cost-control program and an expanding national economy, soon returned, and in 1986 the company for a second straight year won an award for financial management achievement from the Professional Services Management Association.

In 1990, the company purchased MO Services, Inc., of Houston, a firm engaged in providing operations and maintenance services to oil and gas producers, utilities, and industrial customers.

Shaw attributed Baker’s problems to Intelcom, which began losing money in 1991 as a result of a misguided decision to branch into cable installation and housing renovation.

In 1996, earnings rose by 44 percent on contract revenues of $418.4 million.

Baker filed suit against Universal but was forced to take a $17 million charge against its earnings in 1999.

The company restructuring efforts, dubbed its Vision 2000 plan, appeared to pay off.